Full disclosure: I'm not into trains. They're great, but they don't hold my fancy. However... my father-in-law is slightly into them. He's a Golden Spike volunteer and reenactor. As a Christmas gift for 2014, my wife and I have come up with an idea that would be pretty spectacular for her, but I don't know where to look. We want to give him a coupler knuckle for a trailer hitch cover. Ok, so 80 lbs of steel probably isn't such a great idea, so I figured I'd make one out of wood. I have absolutely 0 artistic ability, so it will be a very slow process. Combine that with the fact that I can't just see a picture and go with it, I need a real knuckle to model it off of and study it. I want to make it full size and have both pieces of the train in it. Where can I get ahold of a knuckle? Is it something I could find in a train graveyard (should such a thing exist)? Would it be easy to come across? Thanks for the help.
I've edited it for you. Is there a scrap metal outfit near your home vicinity? One which might cut up old freight cars? Know anyone who works for a railroad?
I kinda like that, but it's too simple for what I want to do. There's nothing behind it. No story and no effort. If my wife and I make one, he can tell people that it was made by hand. Otherwise, it's just "Yep, it was bought from a website." Plus, hey... I'll have a train coupler!
That makes a lot of sense. Well, there is a web page here with diagrams from the original patent application. Apart from that, I really can't think of much - the knuckle parts I have seen, or at least broken remains, but I can't recall having seen the entire thing of of a car before.
Another source might be a repair area in a railroad yard nearby. Couplers, or at least their knuckles tend to break more often than desired. The broken pieces usually are returned to a nearby repair yard for disposition. Also cars often are given minor repairs in these yards, including full coupler replacement. So, if you are able to get on a first name basis with the Yard Master, you might be in luck...especially if he was a Jarhead, or at least likes The Corps. You might have better luck with small short line railroads which are more like family operations. The big Class Ones like Union Pacific have strict policies and have become disgustingly bureaucratic, sort of like dealing with the Pentagon. Good Luck BTW, thanks very much for your service.
I did get a hold of a metal recycler here in my area... and it seems they even have a few extra cars coming in! There was a train derailment today in Weber Canyon. I can't post the link (account is <3 days old) but you can see it if you go to ksl.com (Utah's primary news website) Was it selfish to do that just so I could get a coupler? (I kid, I kid!)
I'm getting here kind of late by the age of this thread, but ... How about buying the coupler from the website and duplicating it in wood? Sounds like the best of both worlds to me!
